Live-bait fish-hook

ABSTRACT

A fish-hook formed from a single piece of wire and including a bight portion, a looped eyelet formed adjacent the bight portion, a shank portion extending from the looped eyelet, and terminating in a shank eyelet. The shank eyelet is formed by bending the wire into a partial loop proximately abutting itself and continuing on away from the shank portion to provide a guiding surface permitting a retaining line to resiliently deflect the wire and essentially open the shank eyelet while being passed into the shank eyelet.

United States Patent 1191 Peterson 1 Dec. 18, 1973 LIVE-BAIT FISH-HOOK[76] lnventor: Lonn M. Peterson, 616 W. Ella,

Willmar, Minn. 5620] 221 Filed: July 29,1971

1211 Appl. 190.; 167,236

[52] US. Cl. 43/44.8, 43/44.83 [51] Int. Cl AOlk 83/06 [58] Field ofSearch 43/443, 44.2, 44.83

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,093,954 9/1937 Chilcott43/442 55!,582 12/1895 Crane 43 44.s

2,l38,702 ll/l938 Litscy 43/4483 X Primary ExaminerRussell R. KinseyAssistant Examiner-Daniel J. Leach Att0rney.lames E. Olds 5 7 ABSTRACT Afish-hook formed from a single piece of wire and including a bightportion, a looped eyelet formed adjacent the bight portion, a shankportion extending from the looped eyelet, and terminating in a shankeyelet. The shank eyelet is formed by bending'the wire into a partialloop proximately abutting itself and continuing on away from the shankportion to provide a guiding surface permitting a retaining line toresiliently deflect the wire and essentially open the shank eyelet whilebeing passed into the shank eyelet.

3 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures LIVE-BAIT FISH-nook BACKGROUND OF THEINVENTION Fishing is a sport and pastime enjoyed by young and old alike;this invention relates to a live-bait fish-hook that will add to theenjoyment of fishing. I

In order to bait a hook with a live minnow, the common practice is toimpale the pointed-barbed portion of the hook through the body justbeneath the dorsal fin or through the lips of the minnow. Such impaling,even if properly done, seriously injures the minnow; however, if thehook is pushed through the minnow too far below the dorsal fin the hookmay sever the minnows spinal column resulting in immediate paralysis anddeath of the minnow. Also, by pushing the hook through the minnow toofar behind the minnows lips and through the head thereof may result inimmediate death of the minnow. Another way of booking a minnow is topass the hook through both eyes, eye sockets, and the corresponding headportion of the minnow. Some people, particularly women, strongly objectto such impaling treating of the minnow but up to now this impaling ofthe minnow was generally necessary if one wanted to fish with liveminnows.

The impaling of the minnow and the corresponding serious injury theretoalso has a detrimental effect of decreasing the activity of the minnowand an inactive or dead minnow is thought to be less effective inattracting game fish. Thus, the minnow must be occasionally checked andreplaced by a fresh live minnow. Even the checking of the minnow, thereeling-in and the casting-out, additionally harms the minnow andshortens its remaining life. Some fishermen prefer to only occasionallycheck the minnow because the checking in itself is so harmful to theminnow.

The impaling of the minnow also presents a danger of the hook beingpainfully impaled into the fingers of the fisherman since it is commonfor the slippery minnow to slide within the fingers ofa fisherman justas the hook is being pierced through the minnow.

The prior art contains various attempts to eliminate the impaling of theminnow such as the use ofa harness surrounding the minnow, but suchharnesses are thought to be relatively awkward to use, significantlyinhibit the movement of the minnow, and are readily detected by gamefish.

THE PRESENT INVENTION The minnow retaining apparatus as disclosed by thepresent invention eliminates the necessity of impaling the minnow with abarbed-pointed end of the fish hook. Since the minnow need not beimpaled and thus injured, some persons, especially women and children,will find fishing more enjoyable. The uninjured minnow is livelier, moreactive, should be more effective in attracting game fish, and has alonger life which eliminates much of the bait checking as is common withthe conventional methods. Since the minnow has a longer life, the sameneed not be readily replaced resulting in a conservation of bait. It isthought that the present apparatus should be more effective inattracting larger game fish since such fish are attracted to morenatural appearing minnows and are generally not known as scavengersconsuming dead fish. Since game fish generally consume a minnow headfirst, it is believed that the present apparatus of the barb-pointed endlocated closely in front of the mouth of the minnow, as opposed toimpaling the minnow under the dorsal fin or through the head as isconventionally done, may be more effective in hooking the game fish asthe entire bight portion of the hook is left unimpaired for the purposeintended. Also, since it is believed that a game fish will first strikethe body of a trolling minnow, the present apparatus of the unimpairedbight portion located near the middle of the body of the trolling minnowshould be most effective in hooking the striking game fish.

Since the hook of the present apparatus is not impaled through theminnow, hooks made of larger diameter wire material may be used on smallminnows, for fishing for such hard mouth fish as a red snapper, withoutany comparable injury to the minnow.

The minnow may be easily removed since it is not necessary to try towork the barb back through the minnow and another minnow may be morerapidly baited by the fisherman than by the prior art apparatuses andmethods.

The impaling of a hook through the minnow often results in the hookbeing forced through the flesh of the hands of the fisherman since hishands are wet and slick from handling the slippery minnow; this dangerto the fisherman is presently eliminated.

The shank portion of the hook is generally passed through the gill andmouth openings of the minnow, however, the shank portion may remainexterior of tlie minnow and the retaining line, one or two, may bepassed through the gill and mouth openings of the minnow. It may bedesired to use a braided wire type of leader retaining line especiallywhen the same is passed through the minnow, to prevent the minnow or thestriking game fish from cutting through the leader-line.

The apparatus of the present invention includes a minnow retaining hookcomprising a bight portion, a looped eyelet formed adjacent to the bightportion, a shank eyelet extending from the looped eyelet for a lengthslightly more than the distance from the mouth to the gill opening ofthe particular minnow being presently used, and a shank eyelet that maybe readily and resiliently opened for the easy insertion of theretaining line.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING The concepts and structure of thisinvention and the preferred embodiment will become better understood byreference to the following description when considered in connectionwith the accompanying drawingin which like numerals designate like partsthroughout the figures and wherein;

FIG. 1 is a side elevation view illustrating a fish-hook of thepreferred embodiment retainingv a minnow thereto in a still-fishingposition;

FIG. 2 is a side elevation view of the preferred embodiment retaining aminnow in a moving or trolling position;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged side elevation view of the shank eyelet;

FIG. 4 is a view of the looped eyelet taken along lines 4-4 of FIG. 1looking in the direction of the arrows; and

FIG. 5 is a side elevation view of a fish-hook harness.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The structure of thepreferred embodiment is illustrated throughout the drawing and beginningthe detailed description with F IG. 1, the fish-hook is formed from asingle piece of resilient steel wire having high strength properties andthe property to maintain sharpness of the pointed end. The diameter ofthe wire will selectively vary with size of the hook and the size of theminnow desired to be used. The wire may also include a protectivecoating (not shown) to prevent the hook 10 from rusting, corroding orotherwise weathering from the elements. The hook 10 comprises a bightportion 12 terminating at the barb-pointed end and the opposite endintegrally connected to a looped eyelet 14.

The looped eyelet 14, generally located opposite from inside throat areaof the bight portion 12 (as shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 5) to minimizeinterference between the eyelet 14 and the game fish engaged by thebight portion, is formed by the wire being wound in a loop having a linereceiving center opening of sufficient area to enable a retaining line.16 to be passed therethrough for subsequent tieingor securement of theline 16 to the eyelet 14. The wire at least proximately engages itselfat the point of cross-over to provide essentially a closed loop toprevent the line 16 from slipping out of the eyelet l4 and along thewire; thus any gap between wire surfaces at the point of cross-overshould be minimal to maintain the closed loop. As shown in FIG. 4, aspot weld may be utilized between the wire surfaces to insure themaintenance of a closed loop.

The relatively straight length of wire extending-from the eyelet 14forms the shank portion 18 of the hook 10. The shank portion 18 may beformed into an are (not shown) to provide greater ease in inserting andremoving the shank eyelet 20. from the minnow. Integrally connected tothe shank 18 at the end opposite from the eyelet 14 is the shank eyelet20. The shank eyelet is formed by the wire being wound into at least apartial loop to abut itself and close the eyelet 20. The wire, after atleast proximately abutting itself, continues on away from the shankportion 18 for a short distance (see FIG. 3) to provide a guidingsurface 19 permitting the retaining line 16 to resiliently deflect thewire and essentially open the shank eyelet 20 while the line 16 is beingreadily passed into the center line receiving opening of the eyelet 20.Thus, a fisherman, having the retaining line secured to looped eyelet14, can readily pass the shank eyelet through the mouth and gillopenings, in the direction as shown in FIG. I or the direction as shownin FIG. 2, and then quickly and easily pass the line 16 along theguiding surface 19 into the eyelet 20. The wire of the eyelet 20 willthen resilientlY snap back into the closed position (as shown in FIGS)with the line 16 retained within the eyelet 20. To readily remove thehook 10 from the minnow, the line is pulled out of the eyelet 20 alongthe surface 19, the shank 18 and eyelet 20 are passed back out throughthe gill and mouth openings. Since the eyelet 20 has minimal dimensionswith no extending portions to gouge the inside of the minnow, the minnowshould be relatively unharmed by the removal of the eyelet 20 from theminnow.

The eyelet 20 could be formed by the wire being looped about and atleast proximately abutting the side of the shank portion 18 (as comparedto abutting the bottom of the shank as shown in FIG. 3) and continuingon for a short distance away from the shank portion 18 to provide aguiding surface to allow deflective opening of the eyelet 20.

Since the minnow is not placed within the throat opening of the hook (asis normally done), the hook of the present invention will be moreefficient in engaging and maintaining a game fish because of the lack ofinterference between the minnow and the bight portion 12. A hook of asize smaller than normally selected for the particular fish sought couldprovide added effectiveness in fishing.

The fishing harness as shown in FIG. 5 includes the fish-hook 10 and theaddition of retaining line 16' (one or more) tied or otherwise securedto the eyelet 14 and including a snap connector, at the end oppositefrom the eyelet 14, to releasably secure the line 16' to the shankeyelet 20. The shown snap connector. could be replaced by metal rings,secured to the line 16', and insertable into the eyelet 20 similarly asthe retaining line 16 is passed into the eyelet 20 as above described.

The method of securing a minnow to a fish-hook without impaling theminnow, as above described, is alsoa part of this invention.

Various modifications and alterations of this invention will becomeapparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the scopeand spirit of thi'sinvention, and it should be understood that thisinvention is not to be unduly limited to the illustrative embodimentsset forth hereinabove.

What I claim is:

l. A fish-hook formed from a single piece of wire and having particularutility in passing through the mouth and gill openings of a minnow forretaining a minnow thereto, siad hook comprising:

a. a bight portion formed from said wire and having a terminated pointedend for engaging game fish;

b. a looped eyelet formed adjacent said bight portion by said wire beingwound into a loop proximately engaging itself at the point ofcross-over, said looped eyelet defining a line receiving opening ofsufficient area to enable a retaining line to be passed therethrough forsecurement to said looped eyelet;

c. a shank portion extending from said looped eyelet for a lengthslightly more than the distance from the mouth to the gill opening of asaid minnow; and

d. a shank eyelet formed at the end of said shank portion opposite fromsaid looped eyelet by said wire being formed into at least a partialloop proximately abutting itself, said shank eyelet formed to extendaway from said shank portion after proximately abutting said shankportion to provide a guiding surface permitting a said retaining line toresiliently deflect said wire and essentially open said shank eyeletwhile a saidretaining line is being passed into the shank eyeletopening, said shank eyelet having minimal exterior dimensions to enablesaid shank eyelet to be easily passed through the mouth and gillopenings of a said minnow, said shank eyelet defining a line receivingopening of sufficient area to enable a said retaining line to be passedtherethrough for retaining a said minnow between said shank portion andthe retaining line extending between said looped and shank eyeletsexterior of a said minnow.

2. A fish-hook and harness combination having particular utility forretaining a minnow thereto, comprismg:

a. a fish-hook formed from a single piece of wire including l. a bightportion formed from said wire and having a terminated pointed end forengaging game fish;

2. a looped eyelet formed adjacent said bight portion by said wire beingwound into a loop proximately engaging itself at the point ofcross-over, said looped eyelet defining a line receiving opening ofsufficient area to enable a retaining line to be passed therethrough forsecurement to said looped eyelet;

3. a shank portion extending from said looped eyelet for a lengthslightly more than the distance from the mouth to the gill opening of asaid minnow; and

4. a shank eyelet formed at the end of said shank portion opposite fromsaid looped eyelet by said wire being formed into at least a partialloop proximately abutting itself, said shank eyelet having minimalexterior dimensions to enable said shank eyelet to be easily passedthrough the mouth'and gill openings of a said minnow, said shank eyeletdefining a line receiving opening of sufficient area to enable a saidretaining line to be passed therethrough for retaining a said minnowbetween said shank portion and the retaining line extending between saidlooped and shank eyelets exterior of the minnow; and b. a retaining linesecured at one end to said looped eyelet, said retaining line includinga connector at the end opposite from the end secured to said loopedeyelet to releasably secure said retaining line to said shank eyelet. 3.A method of securing a minnow to a fish-hook without impaling theminnow, said method comprising:

a. providing a fish-hook formed from a single piece of wire having abight portion, a looped eyelet formed adjacent said bight portion, ashank portion extending from said looped eyelet, a shank eyelet formedat the end of said shank portion opposite from said looped eyelet;

b. inserting said shank eyelet through the mouth and gill openings of asaid minnow to position said looped and shank eyelets exterior of saidminnow; and

c. attaching a retainer line between said looped and shanked eyeletsexterior of the minnow to retain a said minnow between said shankportion and retaining line.

1. A fish-hook formed from a single piece of wire and having particularutility in passing through the mouth and gill openings of a minnow forretaining a minnow thereto, siad hook comprising: a. a bight portionformed from said wire and having a terminated pointed end for engaginggame fish; b. a looped eyelet formed adjacent said bight portion by saidwire being wound into a loop proximately engaging itself at the point ofcross-over, said looped eyelet defining a line receiving opening ofsufficient area to enable a retaining line to be passed therethrough forsecurement to said looped eyelet; c. a shank portion extending from saidlooped eyelet for a length slightly more than the distance from themouth to the gill opening of a said minnow; and d. a shank eyelet formedat the end of said shank portion opposite from said looped eyelet bysaid wire being formed into at least a partial loop proximately abuttingitself, said shank eyelet formed to extend away from said shank portionafter proximately abutting said shank portion to provide a guidingsurface permitting a said retaining line to resiliently deflect saidwire and essentially open said shank eyelet while a said retaining lineis being passed into the shank eyelet opening, said shank eyelet havingminimal exterior dimensions to enable said shank eyelet to be easilypassed through the mouth and gill openings of a said minnow, said shankeyelet defining a line receiving opening of sufficient area to enable asaid retaining line to be passed therethrough for retaining a saidminnow between said shank portion and the retaining line extendingbetween said looped and shank eyelets exterior of a said minnow.
 2. alooped eyelet formed adjacent said bight portion by said wire beingwound into a loop proximately engaging itself at the point ofcross-over, said looped eyelet defining a line receiving opening ofsufficient area to enable a retaining line to be passed therethrough forsecurement to said looped eyelet;
 2. A fish-hook and harness combinationhaving particular utility for retaining a minnow thereto, comprising: a.a fish-hook formed from a single piece of wire including
 3. A method ofsecuring a minnow to a fish-hook without impaling the minnow, saidmethod comprising: a. providing a fish-hook formed from a single pieceof wire having a bight portion, a looped eyelet formed adjacent saidbight portion, a shank portion extending from said looped eyelet, ashank eyelet formed at the end of said shank portion opposite from saidlooped eyelet; b. insErting said shank eyelet through the mouth and gillopenings of a said minnow to position said looped and shank eyeletsexterior of said minnow; and c. attaching a retainer line between saidlooped and shanked eyelets exterior of the minnow to retain a saidminnow between said shank portion and retaining line.
 3. a shank portionextending from said looped eyelet for a length slightly more than thedistance from the mouth to the gill opening of a said minnow; and
 4. ashank eyelet formed at the end of said shank portion opposite from saidlooped eyelet by said wire being formed into at least a partial loopproximately abutting itself, said shank eyelet having minimal exteriordimensions to enable said shank eyelet to be easily passed through themouth and gill openings of a said minnow, said shank eyelet defining aline receiving opening of sufficient area to enable a said retainingline to be passed therethrough for retaining a said minnow between saidshank portion and the retaining line extending between said looped andshank eyelets exterior of the minnow; and b. a retaining line secured atone end to said looped eyelet, said retaining line including a connectorat the end opposite from the end secured to said looped eyelet toreleasably secure said retaining line to said shank eyelet.